


To Steal From A Vampire

by frozens



Category: The Gods Are Bastards - D. D. Webb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:54:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26673226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozens/pseuds/frozens
Summary: Charlotte, a young member of the Thieves Guild, is newly arrived in Veilgrad from Tiraas, and is very, very bored.  Could a daring theft from the local aristocratic vampire's own mansion provide a spark?
Kudos: 4





	To Steal From A Vampire

“Bored! Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored.”

Charlotte rested her forehead down on the bar, and thunked her tankard down several times for emphasis. The loud sounds of the bar washed over her and her companion, somewhat muted by the animal skins and the long wooden beams of the bar’s rustic interior. Large hunting trophies adorned the walls, and roughly dressed miners and lumberjacks packed the bar and tables, drinking, shouting and joking. It smelled of sweat, dirt and beer.

Lifting her head from the bar, Charlotte complained, “Timms, why are we in this ridiculous bar? I know we aren’t exactly spoiled for choices here, but there must be some better options than this. There are barely even any women here, so there isn’t even an off chance of getting laid.”

Her companion smirked back at her. “Well Char, you forget that I’m bored too.” She took a sip of her beer and continued, “Let’s face it, Veilgrad is Shaathist enough that you’re probably not getting laid at any of the bars, and at least here I get to watch a bunch of miners hit on you all night. I need to get my entertainment somehow.”

Charlotte glared back at Timms in what she hoped was an arch manner, spoiled slightly by her bangs falling down in front of her eyes. She gave an explosive breath to move them, failed, and then brushed them behind her ears before attempting to continue her glare. “I hope Avei smites you.”

“Avei? Did you change faiths while I wasn’t looking?”

“See, it’s like this. I  _ believe _ that all systems are corrupt, and I have a sacred duty to bring justice to those that would abuse their power. But Eserion wants us to help ourselves and tonight I’m also feeling very, very lazy. And I figure I’m a woman, and you’re doing anti-womany things, so maybe Avei does me a favor.”

“Anti-womany?”

“Anything I say is automatically a word, because I am perfect,” Charlotte proclaimed triumphantly, hoisted her beer into the air.

“Hear, hear!”

Their tankards clacked together, and they both took long pulls, sitting a moment in silence, observing the other patrons of the bar. Despite Timms’ comments, none of the men at the bar had yet approached them, possibly because Timms was still in her imperial uniform, although she noticed many of the men darted glances in their direction. Charlotte carefully avoided eye contact, hoping to dissuade any from approaching; despite her boredom she still didn’t want to deal with drunken miners tonight.

She turned back to Timms and continued her earlier thought, “Anyways, bored! Hard to get laid, no decent restaurants or theater, no operas with juicy nobles to steal from. And speaking of nobles, the ones we have here in Veilgrad are clearly subpar.”

“Really? Now that most of the Leducs are arrested or dead, I feel like the remainder are scary, but actually mostly decent and reclusive, not really abusive at all.”

“Exactly! If we had some wicked aristocrats then we could plan some epic cons, maybe a legendary heist. But with these, we maybe take from a warehouse occasionally, and they don’t even care. The vampire even left us cupcakes last time!”

Timms gave a quiet laugh. “Malivette is definitely an odd duck. And I know Veilgrad isn’t exactly Tiraas, but you’ll adjust eventually. You did a good thing coming out here to take care of your grandmother, and we’re glad to have you. After all, five eserites is better than four.”

“I suppose,” Charlotte agreed unenthusiastically. “Maybe we could do something a little more interesting. Why not hit the Dufresne mansion itself, instead of some half-empty warehouses? The Dufresne used to be a major house, and it doesn’t look like Malivette is spending the money.”

Timms quirked an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound exactly like a noble theft.”

“Fine, fine, maybe we don’t take anything too valuable. It doesn’t hurt to let the powerful know that we can reach them if they step over the line. And the bragging rights! We could say we stole from a vampire in her own den!”

“Bad idea, Char,” Timms said, shaking her head. “Yes, Malivette is quirky and generally a good citizen, but she’s still a  _ vampire _ . She could literally eat you for breakfast, and if she caught you in her home, she could pretty easily get away with it. ‘Governor devours trespasser’ would be a funny headline to read, but it’s not worth losing out on my new favorite drinking buddy.”

“I could go in the daytime,” Charlotte offered. “Maybe take some garlic with me, some smoke bombs and all that, in case I need it for a quick getaway.”

“Yes, I’m sure that a vampire will have taken no precautions to protect their home during the daytime.”

“Well if you’re going to be so logical about it. I guess I’ll think of something else”

Timms eyed her, unconvinced she’d gotten through, but let the matter drop, and instead started to point out particularly ugly lumberjacks, threatening to invite each one to come dance, until Charlotte convinced her to relent by ordering another round from the bartender.

__________________________________________________

Leaves and branches crunched under her feet as she trudged through the forest. Charlotte brushed a branch out of her way, then winced as it broke with a particularly loud snap. Already exhausted from the long hike up the mountains, she was rueing the fact that she had spent so much time slipping quietly through city streets, and so little time moving silently through the woods. With the racket she was making, Charlotte desperately hoped that vampires didn’t hear like elves, and wishing she had done more research before setting out.

Despite setting out early in the morning, It was near noon when Charlotte came upon the Dufresne estate, having kept off the road as much as possible in her hike through the pine forests and mountains leading up to the mansion. The mansion itself was huge, wrought with engraved stonework, but the grounds around the mansion were not a particularly impressive sight, with overgrown grasses and weeds everywhere, although she didn’t miss that the gate itself looked well maintained. There was no motion inside the estate, although she could hear birds and other animal noises from the surrounding forest.

As she began to circle the estate to find a likely spot to clear the wall, Charlotte began to ponder the wisdom of her enterprise. On one hand, it was noon, so Malivette was probably asleep, and Timms was probably just being an over-cautious worrywart based on her army experience; not to mention, she really was bored out of her mind. On the other hand, well, vampire.

“You can do this,” she muttered quietly to herself, as she spotted a segment of the wall with what looked like good handhold and footing, out of view from the main windows. “Here goes nothing.”

Charlotte took a deep breath, and then nimbly clambered up to top of the wall. She threw a thick blanket over the spikes atop the wall, and then deftly flipped over, dropping down onto the other side.

“Ow!” 

She carefully extracted her hands from the thorny patch of weeds that she had fallen in - they hadn’t been visible from the other side of the wall. Luckily her thick leather pants and boots stopped the rest of her from getting too scratched up. She picked her way as silently as possible through the brush to a small side door nearby.

Removing a small jar of oil from her jacket pocket, she reached softly up to the door hinges, only to find that they were already oiled. The house really was in better shape than it appeared. Charlotte grabbed her lock picks and went to work on the door, quickly popping the lock, and pushing the door inwards.

The door opened into a small foyer, completely empty of furniture, with tiled wooden floors and stone walls. Pictures of the mountains surrounding the manor adorned the walls, and a large, deep, red carpet stood just inside the doorway. The house was absolutely silent. The room was somewhat bright, despite no lanterns or lights being present as sunlight filtered in through the windows.

Determined to find something distinctive to take, Charlotte crept deeper into the mansion passing through empty room after empty room, marked occasionally by carpets and large statues. Nothing worth stealing, or even truly interesting yet presented itself.

She finally came into a much larger room. The ceilings were double high, with a grand staircase leading up to the second floor. The bannisters were polished wood, and a large picture of the manor on a moonlit night framed the near wall; on the far wall was a large crest of Dufresne done in gold and silver.

“There we go,” Charlotte whispered to herself. She padded over to the crest and examined it closely. Hard to tell without better light, but it seemed to be real gold. A perfect talisman to take to make her mark. She carefully reached up to take the crest down from the wall.

As fingers brushed the edges of the crest a deep gong sounded, and the drapes on the windows sharply pulled themselves shut, leaving the room dark, illuminated only a small amount of light filtering through the edges of the curtains. Charlotte froze in the sudden darkness and silence that followed the gong, until it was interrupted by the clack of shoes on wood. Slowly, red eyes emerged from the darkness and approached her.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

Malivette smiled widely, her fangs glinting disturbingly in the faint light. She was beautiful, in a haunting way, her face gaunt, and eyes sunken. A long black dress draped over her slim form and her long silky black hair was slicked back away from her face. A soft wind with no apparent source rippled the hem of her dress, making it look almost like she was floating. Her crimson eyes were fixed hungrily and unerringly on Charlotte. 

“How kind of you to visit my humble home. I didn’t even order lunch, and yet, here you are.”

Malivette’s words broke Charlotte out of her shocked immobility, and she leapt into motion, sliding away along the wall, and fishing out and tossing a handful of the garlic straight at the vampire. She stopped and blinked in surprise a moment later, as the garlic struck Malivette and the vampire let out an ear-piercing shriek and dissolved into a cloud of bats. She hadn’t thought garlic would do more than slow a vampire down. Moments later, however, mist began to pool down the stairs and through the doorway she had used to enter. Spinning around, she spied an empty doorway across the hall. She sprinted through, the mist continuing to rise behind her.

__________________________________

  
  


Charlotte crouched quietly underneath what appeared to be a dining table as mist slowly flowed past her. It had been what felt like an hour since Malivette had first confronted her, and the terror of the initial encounter was slowly giving way to a combination of annoyance and surprisingly, enjoyment. 

With close call after close call, bats and mists gliding past her hiding places, wind knocking statues down almost on top of her, it was starting to strain Charlotte’s credulity that she was truly evading Malivette. The vampire’s powers were apparently ludicrously diverse and extremely powerful; she was almost certain she was being toyed with, and her inner Eserite was starting to take offense. And yet, she had to admit that she  _ missed _ this, the feeling of life or death stakes, the adrenaline, a dangerous mark.

She considered breaking a window to slip out of the mansion, but the noise might draw the vampire, and she was no longer convinced that Malivette would be dissuaded by the sunlight. She needed to find an actual door, ideally without the Duchess noticing, so she could get enough of a headstart to get over the walls. The mist finally had passed through the room, and Charlotte carefully rose from under the table and crept through several empty rooms with no sign of the vampire, before opening the door to a particularly darkened room and slipping inside. Her sense of direction was a bit fuddled, but she thought that this might be leading her towards the front gate, and a way out.

The door slammed shut behind her with a bang, plunging the room into total darkness. Charlotte jumped, backly blindly away from the door, reflexes screaming at her to run. Slowly, two by two, candles on either side of the room lit themselves, converging in the center on the wall furthest from the door. Charlotte goggled; the room was very, very,  _ pink _ .

A huge pink canopy bed dominated the center of the room, with frilly pink sheets and pillows. Pink and red carpets covered most of the floor, with floral paintings and lace adorning the walls. A cedarwood dresser stood next to the bed, topped with pink vases filled with fresh flowers, roses and pink tulips. A very pleasant floral scent pervaded the room.

“What the hell,” Charlotte murmured to herself, before hearing a soft hissing sound as mist filled in from underneath the door.

She backed further away from the door, towards the bed, as the mist rose and began to spin, faster and faster. With a final flourish and burst of wind, the mist dissipated, revealing the thin form of the vampire.

Charlotte flushed, and her heart began to pound even harder in her chest. Malivette was wearing  _ considerably _ less clothing than in their initial encounter, and was staring at her silently and intently with unblinking crimson eyes.

“That’s a predatory look. I can’t tell if you want to eat me or screw me.” A voice said.

Charlotte’s hand rose to her face as she realized she had spoken aloud, her flush deepening into a bright red, contrasting with her pale complexion. Malivette’s smile widened, and Charlotte couldn’t take her eyes off of the vampire’s large fangs. The Duchess started to slowly glide forwards, and Charlotte squeaked and reflexively threw more garlic. The bulbs bounced off of Malivette’s smooth stomach, landing quietly on the carpeted ground. Looking down, then back up at Charlotte, Malivette quirked an eyebrow, and then dissolved into a fit of giggles.

“Alright, you got me. Garlic doesn’t actually do anything to vampires, besides smell a bit strongly. I may have been playing things up just a bit earlier. I just get so  _ bored _ up here at the mansion, with no visitors, nothing to do.” Malivette began to slowly move forward again, candlelight reflecting off of her pale skin, and Charlotte tried to back up before realizing she was up against the edge of the bed. “And here I had a guest, and such a pretty one. I couldn’t resist having a little bit of fun.”

Malivette was now within arms reach of Charlotte, and she stumbled backwards, tripping and sitting heavily down on the bed. The duchess advanced another few inches, reaching down and lifting Charlotte’s chin gently with one hand. “Charlotte, right? I thought I recognized you from the warehouse job. I may or may not have a bit of a thing for pretty blondes.”

It took a moment for Charlotte to find her voice, and when she did it came out a bit huskily, “Umm, you were there?”

“Of course silly, I had to wait and see if you guys would like my cupcakes! We went through all that trouble baking them, I needed to know if the recipe needed adjustment.”

Charlotte stared up at Malivette incredulously, the incongruity of her previous terror, Malivette’s unearthly beauty and their casual banter leaving her brain just a little bit broken. “This is not how I expected my day to go.”

“Well me either, but I’m not complaining,” Malivette responded, gliding slightly closer and reaching down with her other arm, wrapping her hand lightly around to the back of Charlotte’s neck.

The vampire’s smile dropped for a moment, and she spoke in a more level tone, “In all seriousness you are free to go, just say the word. I can even have a carriage take you back to town. But,” Malivetter continued, her smile and fangs returning, “if would really enjoy it if you would stay a while.”

Charlotte considered for a moment, struggling to master her whirl of emotions and adrenaline. “What the hell, I guess I could stay a bit”

Malivette effortlessly lifted her by the neck into a half standing position for a long, deep kiss, before pulling back, leaving Charlotte breathless. “I’ll try to make sure you’re properly entertained.”

_______________________

It was some time later and Charlotte was lying lazily on her stomach, elbows on a pink pillow, propping her up slightly off the bed. Malivette was beside her, humming quietly and leaning against one of the bedposts, one hand gently running through Charlotte’s long blonde hair, then softly tracing patterns and circles on her back. Charlotte turned slightly towards Malivette onto one elbow, rubbing at her neck with her other hand.

“I can’t believe you bit me.”

Malivette giggled. “Hey, I asked you first. Twice. And,” Malivette continued pointing at her fangs, “you know, I’m a vampire and all.”

Charlotte flushed a little and muttered, “It sounded like a good idea at the time. You’re not like a praying mantis right? I don’t have to worry about you eating the rest of me?”

This time, Malivette gave a full throated laugh. “Oh, honey, I’m not a dryad. Not that I’d mind another nibble, but I used to be a person and hope someday to be one again, so I would rather not go around killing people willy nilly. Not to mention the empire is actually stricter on undead governors than living ones; it would go rather poorly for me if I started killing people.” Malivette smiled, her fangs still a little red with Charlotte’s blood, “Plus, you know, I like you! You ran away so well, and you’re pretty and you taste good!”

“I don’t think that’s as comforting as you think it is.” It was a little disconcerting to see her own blood on the Duchess’s fangs. “Maybe let’s hold off on more nibbles for now. So you’re technically undead. And there is a cure for it? I didn’t think you could bring back the dead.”

“You didn’t notice my lack of a heartbeat then?”

“I was distracted by a few other things.”

“Anyways, yes, I’m technically undead. There is no cure for it right now, but I’m working on one, and the empire is giving me tons of money to find it!”

Charlotte frowned. “I’m not sure I love the idea of the empire having a cure for vampirism. Wouldn’t that mean they could make and unmake an army of nigh invincible vampires?”

“That’s right! I knew my little Eserite would notice that! And in fact, that brings me to my offer for you. How would you like to be my thrall!”

“What! I’m not sure you know what an Eserite is. I’m fairly certain being a thrall to a rich noble would go against, I don’t know, all of my core beliefs. Freedom, bringing justice and comeuppance to corrupt power and systems, you know, all that?”

Waggling her finger at Charlotte, Malivetter countered, “Now, now, thralldom gets a bad rap. Mind control this, virtual slavery that. As a point of fact, there is no mind control involved at all! I can invest a portion of my power in you when I feed, and you get all sorts of benefits - you won’t age, increased speed, increased strength, incredible reflexes. You’d basically be like a Butler! In return you’d serve me and let me feed on you every so often. In the spirit of full disclosure I have three thralls already, and I rotate my feeding, so I don’t take too much from any one of you.”

“Not that not aging doesn’t sound wonderful,” Charlotte responded, “and I’m glad there’s no mind slavery, but serving and being food isn’t why I joined the Thieves Guild. I believe in Eserion, and I live by our principles.”

“Ah, but I haven’t gotten to the best part! You’d get to keep an eye on me, and through me, on all sorts of corrupt aristocrats! You can make sure I don’t give the empire a cure for vampirism, and keep an eye on Veilgrad and Stalweiss nobility in general. And let’s be honest, you had to know that coming here wasn’t a good idea, and I know Timms didn’t send you, so the only reason I can think you did, was that you must be bored out of your mind. I can promise entering my service would not be boring.”

Charlotte looked at Malivette, considering for a few long moments. “Well, I suppose it would be something to do.”

Malivette clapped enthusiastically, “Wonderful! This is perfect!” She paused a moment, looking Charlotte up and down. “How do you feel about the color green?”


End file.
